Marvel: Iron Age - Mockingbird the Avenger part 4
THE CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY ARE BASED OFF CHARACTERS AND SETTINGS THAT ARE THE PROPERTY OF MARVEL INC. AND THEIR RESPECTIVE AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, I THOUGHT OF THE STORY BUT THE WORLD IS THEIRS
(Continued from the previous chapter: Mockingbird the Avenger - Part 3)
The trip from France to Britain is surreal to say the least, in fact that is the only way to describe it. The Black Knight explained to Mockingbird that in order to get past the Sea Wall unnoticed they'd be traveling via Avalon. The problem is that Avalon isn't technically a real place, it is the collective unconscious of Britain. It is a place of fairies, swords in stones, and magic.
"Avalon please admit your loyal son." Arthur asked while holding his pendant in his hands, head bowed and eyes closed.
There was a swirl of light and a simultaneous feeling of being both incredibly heavy and weightless at the same time. The swirl of light transforms into images; castles, dragons, wizards and knights all jumbled around. They were just skirting the edge of Avalon so none of these images fully materialized and pretty soon it was all over. Slipping back into reality Mockingbird was hyper aware of every cell of her body...and they all felt sick.
"You did well. Most people feel nauseated by the trip."
"Yeah, great." She sits down on a piece of rubble to keep from throwing up. After a few moments she feels better and looks up.
"I thought you said we'd be back in the real world?"
"We are." He responded quizzically.
"Then why can I still see dragons?"
In the distance there are two dragons circling a village breathing fire on the buildings. Soon there will be nothing left but ash.
"Welcome to England. Those aren't technically dragons. They're creatures created with Makluan DNA."
When he sees that she still doesn't understand he elaborates.
"Makluans are an advanced alien species that resemble dragons. Somehow the chief geneticists got their hands on some of their DNA and they use the creatures to hunt and kill escapees of the prison camps. We should get moving before...."
He trails off and unsheathes his sword. Mockingbird looks up and sees that three of the 3 story tall dragons had located them and were moving to surround them.
"Okay how do we fight these things?" Mockingbird asks.
"Well killing one isn't as hard as you think." He stands with his back to Mockingbird as the dragons circle.
"Well how do you kill three of them?" She activates the circular energy shield on her wrist.
"I'll let you know if we survive this. Just stay clear of the mouth, they do breathe fire."
As if they heard him one of the dragons lets loose with a jet of flame. Both Mockingbird and Black Knight dodge into different directions. The Black Knight runs between one of the dragons legs slashing upwards with his sword trying to cut open the creature's belly but it just pierces the first few layers of scales. He leaps over it's rear legs and under it's swinging tail.
"F-1" Mockingbird calls out and hard-light wings appear from the middle of her back to her wrists allowing her to take to the air. The two remaining dragons track her though and she barely gets her shield in the path of the jet of flame that comes towards her. From her other wrist she fires energy daggers at one of the creatures but they just bounce off it's tough skin.
"Any weak spots here Arthur?" She asks swooping around the two dragons tracking her. They seem to be hesitant to fire flame on each other so she keeps one between her and the other dragon at all times.
"There is a control chip in their neck, if you can find it." Somehow the Black Knight has scaled a building and used it to leap on to the back of the dragon he was fighting. Even though the dragon is bucking and trying to toss him off he never loses his footing and makes his way to the dragon's head.
~How the hell does he do that?~ She thinks to herself.
It seems the dragons have started to catch on to Mockingbird's tactics and one flaps it's wing as she flies by knocking her to the ground. It then pins her to the ground with it's front claw. It leans it's head in towards her face smoke coming from it's nostrils then inhaling preparing to burn her to a crisp.
"Unhand her!" Says a new voice, a rather commanding voice.
Someone else joins the fray, someone furry. Though he is roughly the same size of the dragon's head a cat-man manages to knock the creature's head aside and it releases Mockingbird. Not to look a gift-cat in the mouth she gets moving again towards the last dragon.
Now that they are each facing a dragon themselves Mockingbird manages to get behind the dragon's head and tries to latch on in order to find the control chip. The cat-man is moving with blinding speed around his dragon scratching it with both sets of claws but is having a hard time piercing the dragon's scales as well. Black Knight doesn't know the cat-man but is grateful for the help though a little suspicious. People who find freedom in the wilds of Britain don't tend to lend a hand to others in trouble....well other than him and a the other members of his 'underground railroad'.
Mockingbird does finally remember where she heard about these alien dragons before though, the Mandarin, an old super-villain used Makluan technology. But why does she know about it, it must have been in her training, then it occurs to her why.
"SM-1." A sword appears in her hand. Maybe their own technology can harm them, even if they are just some kind of clones. Pressing a button on the sword's hilt and a disintegration beam fires from the tip cutting through some of the creature's scales. After a few seconds of this a device sparks beneath the creature's skin, it appears Mockingbird found the control chip.
Somehow the dragon knows that it's leash is off and decides to try to make a run for it instead of continuing the fight. It makes a line for the distant Sea Wall but before it can get close it is destroyed by weapons fire from the Wall itself. Leaving just two giant dragons to deal with. Though the lenses in Mockingbird's mask pick up another dragon approaching.
"We've got to finish these quick, we've got more incoming."
She calls to the other two. The cat man has managed to blind his opponent but it seems to still be tracking him by scent or hearing or something. Luckily his speed is still keeping him ahead of the jets of flame. Black Knight looks up to where Mockingbird saw the other dragon approaching and smiles.
"Don't worry, that's just Lockheed. He's on our side."
A purple dragon slightly smaller than the two green one swoops in and the Black Knight leaps onto it's back. They fly together as if they've been doing so for years. With Lockheed's speed and agility Black Knight is able to swoop in with his ebony blade and slash at the same spot repeatedly eventually drawing blood. Lockheed for his part breathes fire at the dragon not to injure it but to keep it off balance.
Seeing that the Black Knight and his dragon steed have their dragon handled Mockingbird goes to help the cat-guy with the remaining one.
"Hey Felix, you distract I'll get close and take it out."
The cat-man realizes she is speaking to him and responds. "That is much appreciated madame. But I am Nagual; the Cat Sith, Ngariman, Son of Bast, Cath Palug, Champion of the C..."
"Yeah okay, Nagual was it? Do you get the plan?" She interrupts.
"....at People." He has never been interrupted when giving his titles before and is taken aback but nods his ascent to her plan. With his lightning speed the dragon is unable to get close but tries to burn the fur off the annoying creature. Trying to make lightning strike twice Mockingbird tries to attack the dragon's neck with the disintegration beam from the sword but either this one doesn't have a control chip or it's located somewhere else.
The dragon whips it's head around ignoring the annoying cat-thing and tries to bite the annoying flying one in half. Her flight speed keeps her out of the creature's mouth but she is knocked aground again losing the sword. Nagual seeing an opportunity snatches up the sword and with a great leap stabs upward through the dragon's lower jaw into it's skull. It dies instantly.
"Thanks for the assist, I'm Mockingbird."
She extends a hand to the cat-man. He kneels in front of her and holds her hand to his own forehead. It feels regal like he's pledging himself to her.
"Uh....no need for that....we better check on Arthur."
Making Nagual release her hand she turns to see the other dragon fall under Black Knight's and Lockheed's combined attacks. He leaps from his dragon and gets between Nagual and Mockingbird. He does not offer his hand to the cat-man.
"Thank you for the assistance. But we need to be going." He says rather rudely. Mockingbird is somewhat surprised, this guy didn't need to help them. Looking at Arthur he doesn't seem quite as attractive as he did when he came to her rescue back in France. A trick of the light?
"Ah yes your quest. I am here to assist you. If the lady would have me." Again said with sincere nobility.
"Where we're going we're going to need all the help we can get. Nice uh....dragon there Arthur. Another Makluan clone?"
Lockheed snorts angrily jets of smoke coming from his nostrils. Arthur goes back over to pat him on the snout.
"Not exactly. Lockheed's an actual alien, different species but possibly distantly related."
Lockheed still doesn't look pleased with that idea either. But he comes forward and kneels down enough for them to get on.
"But we should be going, if you're going to be joining us you should come to our castle Nagual."
Arthur finally relents but ensures that the cat-man gets on Lockheed's back in front of him while Arthur takes position closer to the wings. Nagual is uncertain of riding such a creature but mounts the dragon with a kind of curiosity. Arthur offers a hand to Mockingbird to help her up.
"No need, remember I've got my own wings and a bird's gotta fly."
She takes off into the air circling the ones on the dragon before Lockheed takes to the air and she follows wherever her new allies lead. And getting in to the country is the easy part.
---------------------------------
Ferrum Facility, England
Technician: "Thunder has been armed and will arrive in an hour to secure the other prototypes."
Project Manager: "Good. We will not allow sabotage to threaten the others. How about our new charges?"
They stand in a large laboratory within a specialized Ferrum Facility. Beside them stands an African-American boy, well a man, apparently three days ago was his 18th birthday. Whisps of energy seem to be coming off his body but are being sucked away through the top of the glass cylinder he's being contained in.
"I swear I won't tell anyone anything I've seen. I can keep a secret!"
He pounds on the glass of his cage and the with each pound a little more energy comes off him.
Project Manager: "Mute." And though the young man continues to yell they can no longer hear him.
Technician: "It seems Nefaria attempted to reach critical mass and explode. However the explosion was only enough to kill the boy's father and somehow energize the boy. In a few more days we could have his personality submerged and have him ready for him to serve as Las Vegas' new power source. However Las Vegas is wondering why they can't have Ionic subject 1 or 2 instead."
Project Manager: "No, we have other plans for Simon and Erik, they have already been allocated to the prototypes. I am more concerned with how Nefaria managed to have the willpower to even try to explode."
Technician: "It seems that he sensed that he was nearing the end of his life. He gained his powers originally in order to be immortal so coming close to dying seems to have broken our hold on his psyche. The irony is if he had tried to detonate sooner he would have taken out the power plant and a large portion of the city. Instead he tried to physically force his way out of containment which just drained more and more of his power."
The Project Manager just nods and moves on. The boy inside the glass container seems to hear their conversation and stops banging on the glass. He just sits in the center of the chamber and looks up at the energy being sucked out the ceiling. Several times he has heard them call Nelson his father. But he was just a man who dated his mother....wasn't he?
The Project Manager and Technician move on to the other subject in the lab. The so-called 'Golden Hulk' being held immobile in a gravity field. When the Stalker Creed 3 teleported him here there wasn't much left of the teleporter, but that was it's task after all. Nothing held the gold creature back though, it destroyed everything they tried to use to contain it. That is until they were able to trick the creature into a gravity field.
Project Manager: "And our Gold Hulk?"
"Not Hulk, my name is Mace!"
The creature being held in the gravity field says angrily. Every movement it makes just causes it to spin in space. The gravity field creates a point of gravity causing Mace to fall to the center. Nothing he does can move him away from that center.
Technician: "There is less progress with the subject sir. Whatever it's outer shell is composed of we can't penetrate it with anything we've tried."
Project Manager: "Telepaths?"
Technician: "Nothing sir. Completely impenetrable."
Project Manage: "Well we have a genuine mystery on our hands. Something that will keep our best minds occupied. Good."
Together the project manager and technician leave the lab. They have plans for the next few days, once those projects are done then they will focus their time on these newest arrivals.
Will being held in the ionic energy draining cell stands up and walks over to the side closest to Mace. He places his hand on the glass and can almost feel energy being drawn out of him. He tries to give his fellow prisoner a smile that says "We're in this together".
The being who calls himself Mace smiles back, and in response transforms. He turns into a normal sized man, no gold skin, but still being held in the gravity field.
(Continues in the next chapter: Mockingbird the Avenger - Part 5)
Who is this Mace? You've got me scratching my head
great job, nice twist with Nefaria,
You're doing a great job with Mockingbird @PrinceIMC
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